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Tuesday, June 3, 2003

The Joker | Comics

Risen from the deepest corner of Gotham City’s criminal underbelly, The Joker was a normal guy who one day gone sane to the craziest person ever because of one particular bad day that turned his world upside down. He then single handedly changed the entire scenario for Gotham’s crime world and yet, his origin was never really revealed clearly. As he considers Batman as his arch-nemesis and the one responsible for who he is, he is always up to cause some mayhem to lure The Bat in. Not only he is a terror to the heroes, the entire super-villain community is also scared of his name.

Lovers and Madmen
A guy named Jack tries to drink his sorrows away in bar as he hits up a chat with the barmaid Leena. Whereas he is a bank robber, he says that he is bored to death in his current line of work as a securities broker and it doesn't get him the traction he expects from life. By then, Batman has been vigilant for around a year and showed up when Jack and his friends tries to rob a bank. As The Dark Knight rains on his fellow thugs like the Holy Ghost, Jack finds excitement he was looking for all along. The following confrontation deeply sowed the seeds of their age-old animosity towards each other for years to follow.

The Man Who Laughs
What he did in between the years of his maniacal transformation and first public appearance as the Clown Prince of Crime still remains a huge mystery. His first act was leaving a trail of disfigured corpse in a building for Captain Jim Gordon and Batman to discover. He killed a reporter on TV who died laughing and then publicly threatens millionaire Henry Claridge. In spite of every possible precaution taken to save Claridge, Joker delivered his promise and then contaminated the water supply system of Gotham. Figuring out what Joker is up to, Batman thwarts his plan with help from Gordon and took the clown to Arkham Asylum.

The Joker | Comics

The Long Halloween
Gotham was terrorized at the rise of a new serial killer during Christmas Eve going by the name of The Holiday Killer and this upsets the clown. He confronts Sal Maroni in a restaurant about Holiday Killer and then goes to break into Harvey Dent's apartment. Although his encounter with Carmine Falcone leaves behind a few clues that actually suggest that he is the one everyone is looking for. In order to commit a mass murder with toxic gas on New Year's Eve, The Joker hijacked a plane and this led him to a confrontation with The Dark Knight. Jumping off to a skyscraper with the madman, Batman let the plane drown into water near Gotham Harbor.

Dark Victory
When Pino and Umberto Maroni staged a breakout at Arkham to kill Two-Face, The Joker and Scarecrow managed to escape. He showed up at Gotham Sewers to let Two-Face know that Penguin is out of the game for now. Joker decides to take things into his hands and that lead to them both pointing their guns at each other and Dent gives him a beating for humiliating him in front of his wife before he became Two-Face to remind him that he is in charge. He then went after both the Maroni and Falcone Crime Family looking for the real Hangman Killer but ended up getting shot at his shoulder instead.

The Killing Joke
As The Joker made it his habit of going in and out of Arkham, he got out with a new sinister plan and left an impostor behind. He broke into the house of Commissioner Gordon and shot his daughter Barbara Gordon as she opened the door. Joker then takes pictures of a naked Barbara upon undressing her and takes Jim Gordon to an abandoned amusement park, where the clown forces him to watch those pictures of his girl. Joker's point of all this madness was to push Gordon to the point where he loses his sanity but he failed in doing so despite Barbara was left paraplegic after this and he got apprehended by Batman.

A Death in the Family
After firing Dick Grayson from being his sidekick (Nightwing – Year One), Batman has taken Jason Todd under his wing as the new Robin. Joker escapes once again and he met Dr. Sheila Haywood, blackmailing her to do his bidding. Jason was desperately seeking his missing mother and one of the trails led him to Sheila Haywood, who betrayed him and got him captured by The Joker. Before leaving the two in a warehouse rigged with explosions, Joker savagely beats Jason with a crowbar with an inch of his life. Batman arrives too late to save the two from being blown up and left mourning with the lifeless body of Jason Todd.

The Joker was forced to flee from the United Nations Building after this plan was foiled by Batman and Superman, when he failed to commit homicide as the new Ambassador of Iran. While he faced his demise during his escape and Superman never found his body, he was actually hurt pretty bad that forced him to go into hiding. When a corrupt businessman named Curtis Base tried to make a break as a new Joker, he was forced to come out to clear his name. After his redemption to madness, he banded with Lex Luthor to double-cross him and the duo is taken down by the World's Finest.

Knightfall
Putting Dr. Jeremiah Arkham into death traps, The Joker escapes Arkham when Bane came to Gotham for the first time. He tried to kidnap Commissioner Gordon but failed and then he abducts Mayor Krol with Scarecrow to control GCPD. They even lured Batman to Gotham River Tunnel using him as a bait but when he was exposed to Fear Gas, he goes berserk re-imagining Jason's death and beat the hell out of Joker. Frustrated after failing, Scarecrow used some of his gas on Joker but it had no effect on him and the former only received a beating in return.

No Man's Land
As Gotham City was abandoned by United States and Batman was working hard on restoring order, Joker remained quiet for some time. He did played a deadly-twisted prank by dressing up a few GCPD officers into his own likeness to be the target of a sniper, who simply hates Joker. He was confronted by Jim Gordon's wife Detective Sarah Essen in a hospital full of newborn babies that he took hostage. Before throwing a baby to her, he told her not to move and shot her as she instinctively tries to catch the infant. This revelation made Gordon burst in a fit of rage and he then shot the clown's kneecap.

Emperor Joker
After deceivingly stealing Mister Mxyzptlk's reality-altering power, The Joker gained near-omnipotence and left the reality we live in completely twisted. He ate the entire population of China and stuck Lex Luthor in a loop, where he was killed over and over again. Since he is overly obsessed with his arch-nemesis Batman, Joker arranged for him to go through a cycle of getting tortured, dying and coming back to life only to repeat again and again. With his indomitable will, Superman managed to see through these lies and set everything back to normal with help from Mxyzptlk and The Spectre.

Joker’s Last Laugh
During his time at the Slab penitentiary, Joker learns of having a brain tumor and decided to have one last laugh before going. So, he exposed the other inmates to Joker Venom to "jokerize" them by sharing his chalk-white skin and insanity. He sends his minions to bring him Harley Quinn, so that he can impregnate her and leave an offspring, which plan was thwarted by Batgirl, Power Girl and Spoiler. This action angers Harley and with her help, Batman was able to produce an antidote for the venom. Assuming Robin has died during the ensuing chaos, Nightwing gave him a savage beating, almost killing him.

Hush
When a new villain named Hush entered the life of Batman and start playing with the criminal underworld like chess pieces, The Joker had to play his part too. He convinced Batman of killing his childhood friend Tommy Elliott and that made The Dark Knight to go on almost killing the maniac. Except for this act, he didn't do much the entire time Batman and Hush played their little game of cat and mouse. His next rampage was near during the Christmas holiday when he planted bombs into several places and shot a few detectives before being stopped by Maggie Sawyer.

Under The Hood
The organized crime mobs of Gotham starts facing major problems from a mysterious persona named Red Hood. It was really a resurrected Jason Todd who came back from dead seeking retribution and aside from continuously taunting Batman; Jason kidnaps Joker and locked up in an abandoned carnival. He mercilessly beat the clown senseless with a crowbar in a fashion he received beating from him years earlier. In a final confrontation, Batman was given choice of either killing the Joker or him but the former chose to save the maniac and stop Jason in the end.

War Games
A massive shoot-out occurs at the meeting of gang-leader from Gotham Underground when Stephanie Brown put Batman's contingency plans in motion. She was believed dead after Black Mask severely beaten and tortured her upon capturing. Under the guise of Batman, the villain was confronted by The Joker, who made the clown angry by robbing him the chance of killing another Robin. The first time, they were interrupted by the real Batman but in a second encounter, Joker managed to shoot Black Mask on his leg before being taken back to Arkham Asylum.

With a VengeanceBatman and Superman were attacked by The Maximums, a group of superheroes from a parallel world seeking vengeance over Superman for killing one of their teammates. Batzarro and Bizarro intervene, Batman is possessed by Kryptonite Man and all of these mishaps took place because The Joker and Mister Mxyzptlk have been playing a cosmic game with the heroes as chess-pieces. He shot Batman but Batzarro died saving him and the maniac reveals his desire of killing every other Batman that ever existed.

Salvation Run
Pissed of dealing with the ever-growing threat of meta-human super criminals, Amanda Waller and Rick Flag of the Suicide Squad decided to deport a large number of villains to the Hell Planet via Boom Tube. When Joker arrived there, after killing Psimon by bashing his head for trying to form tribes, he formed his own group. Joker then shot Iron Cross in the face and his group did nothing much except for trying to steal from Lex Luthor's group. Lex grew tired of Joker's meddling and they decided to settle the score in a one on one fistfight.

Batman R.I.P.

Joker joined The Black Glove upon being invited by Doctor Hurt in condition that they will let him have Robin. When he was being released from Arkham by Guy Dax, he immediately did a number on his face. Batman was forced to fight him to save the life of Jezebel Jet and as the face each other the clown cut his tongue with a blade to further scarring Batman's psyche. Joker locked up all the members of The Black Glove in Arkham and waits for Batman to come and get them after they successfully managed to bury him alive.

Created alongside The Dark Knight by the same creator duo Bill Finger and Bob Kane in 1940, The Joker is a fictional villainous character who mostly appeared on the pages of Batman and other related ongoing titles from DC Comics. During this longer than 75 years reign of the character Joker developed his personality to a complex center where his craziness surpasses everyone’s’. Some of the great stories featuring the character are The Killing Joke, The Man Who Laughs, The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, A Death in the Family, The Dark Knight Returns, Hush, Under the Hood and Batman R.I.P. so far.

The Crazy One

Aside from his frequent appearance on the pages of comic books, Joker was also adapted into movies, animations and video games. Actor Mark Hamill is known for voicing the Joker in animation and video games for more than decades and Heath Ledger won an posthumous Academy Award for his portrayal of the role in The Dark Knight. In 2016, the live-action Suicide Squad movie is also featuring the Joker played by method actor Jared Leto, which is about to be another phenomenon and the role was supposed to be the primary antagonist of the film but then the studio decided otherwise.
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